Wait, Did Sephora Just Steal My Heart?

Hello darlings and dears. Hope all is well for you today. It’s storming here so you know that means I’m hurting BIG TIME.

As a spoonie I try to find ways to make life easier for me. Naturally I have to prioritize what types of things I want to add to my beauty regimen, which normally means I almost never have my nails done, my toes I just about always have done but this is because I only paint them once a month (thank you Wet n Wild for producing such an amazing product what always helps me to accomplish this).

Well … I received a message that I would be included in the #SystemAddict VoxBox for this month. For those of you not familiar with Vox Box…. It is a sample box that Influenster sends out to you based on a simple survey to determine which box for the month you qualify for. This box is called a VOX BOX. The best things about the vox box are that the products are full-sized and that the products are free, the only thing you need do is use your social media to review the products… that’s it, nothing more… how many times are you on your social media and you don’t know really what you want to say or do… well vox box helps with that.

This month I qualified for a makeup related box called Formula X #SystemAddict box.

I have never been one that would spend more than $4 on a nail polish, I mean come on it lasts maybe (if I’m lucky) 3 days on my nails so why would I spend more than that? I have tried many polishes and the only one I seem to gravitate toward is Wet n Wild’s Mega Last polish line (that sucker lasts forever and comes in so many colors and it’s only $1.99 !!) That is until I tried these new babies.

From left to right we have Cleanse, Prime, Formula X (in the color TGIF), and Shine

Wait, wait , wait … hold it a second … Did Sephora just steal my heart away from Wet n Wild? WET n WILD??? My die-hard, have been using since junior high school brand? Well darlings and dears … it would seem so.

Let’s break this down for you.

I am a spoonie, this means I have to pick and choose what I do with my time wisely. This often means when it comes to my beauty regimen I have to decide if I should spend the extra time and energy on plucking my brows or changing my polish, making sure said brows are even whist I do my makeup or waiting for my polish to dry, or the ever popular shaving my legs or painting my toes. The reason I USE TO be obsessed with the MegaLast line was that I would only have to spend the extra spoon on painting my toes once a month because this puppy would stay on forever if you needed it to, however with the Formula X polish line I am not sure if this is also true, I think it could be and am in the process of testing that theory out. Seriously though, with as many colors as Sephora carries for this line there is NO WAY I am going to have enough restraint to keep myself from painting my piggies only once a month.

Blank canvas ready and excited for this color!!

I tested the Delete All on the polish that was on my hands the day I received my package in the mail. I have used other jar polish removers in the past and hated them without prejudice due to their smells, the awkward shapes, or simply that after 2 or 3 uses the sponges were just no good anymore. With Delete All I didn’t have any of those issues. Upon opening the jar I did not notice a scent ( GOOD ON YOU Formula X for the way you seal your jars!! There is no way this jar is leaking in transit) in fact I had to stick a cotton bud into the jar to be able to test the scent. Not too smelly, I mean with any remover you are going to have a smell, but this one want’s too bad and it removed all my polish at one time! It has a hole in the sponge for 5 fingers and did in fact take off all my Wet n Wild polish. There wasn’t too much residue on my nails after and no sticky feeling to my hands like I get when I used other jar removers.

Next I tested out the Cleanse (step 1) and compared it to when I use alcohol to dehydrate my nail bed before I put polish on and honestly I didn’t see that much of a difference. Both methods remove oils and unwanted barriers between the nail and polish, however Cleanse does not have a harsh scent.

Step 2 was to prime (base coat) my nails and here is where the scent got a bit stronger. I could not believe how fast this base coat dried! I was in the middle of doing wash when I was testing these products. While doing the base coat the dryer beeped and I had just painted my middle finger but when I tested the 3 fingers I did get to paint they were already dry! I wasn’t sitting in a room with a fan on either. ( hmmm pretty cool)

When I got to step 3 I though oh no, see I knew this wasn’t going to go well for me. I wasn’t sure I liked the color, I hated how strong the scent was, I just knew that with as thick as the polish was there was no way this was going to dry by the time I was ready for bed, and the first coat was so streaky that I didn’t see how a second coat would be able to improve the mess that was my nails at that moment. My first hand was dry even before my second hand was finished and the second coat of ( goodness why so thick) polish did in fact improve the look of the polished digits and the color was pretty ( ok Formula X I see you)

On the 4th and final step of this mani I was impressed ( ok …. ok stop looking at me like that, I was more than impressed I was Gobsmacked , head over heels in love, and already writing a shopping list for the colors I was going to pick up in this line).

I figured the top coat (Shine) would probably take forever to dry and I would be exhausted and not be able to shower, but by the time I painted my pinky on my right hand all of my fingers were cleared for take off.

From start to finish the whole system took maybe 10 minutes total and was simple to apply with the brushes being designed to fit the nail bed perfectly! That’s a blessing to this spoonie since my normal ( I mean old) routine takes a minimum of 25 minutes, 45 if I want to be sure I wont have bed sheet marks the next day.

My final thoughts on these products are that I am seriously impressed and am now more obsessed with Formula X and the EXCEL system than I ever was with what’s its name (yes, we are braking up, my heart now belongs to another). I also really like the manicured look it leaves me with.

Well spoonie darlings and dish dears, I hope that the day finds you in good spirits, with plenty of spoons for the darlings and patience for the dears. Thank you ever so much for making it to the end of this blog post (yes it’s a big one but that is proof that I truly love this product!!). Until next time, thanks for peaking in on this spoonie’s makeup bag and remember to save a spoon for a little lip gloss ( errrr Nail Polish)

*I have received these products complimentary to test and review. *** HOWEVER, the opinions I have stated are completely my own and are non biased.